Lavrov Declares Europe ‘Finished’ in Ukraine Peace Efforts as U.S. Takes Lead.
Russia’s top diplomat accused Europe on Tuesday of wasting years of diplomatic opportunities to prevent the current crisis in Ukraine, dismissing any future role for Germany or France in peace efforts and signaling Moscow’s growing preference for alternative mediators.
“You had your chances,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, claiming Berlin and Paris “squandered” the framework laid out in the 2014 and 2015 Minsk accords.
Those agreements, brokered by Germany and France, were meant to grant autonomy to the eastern Donbas region and avert further escalation. Russia later occupied and illegally annexed the territory.
Lavrov said the countries he now considers credible mediators are Belarus, Turkey and Hungary — not the European powers that helped negotiate earlier deals.
He also offered rare praise for the United States, arguing that Washington, “unlike London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin,” is actively attempting to find a diplomatic exit to the war.
Lavrov’s remarks came as Washington signaled that a breakthrough may be near. U.S. officials told CBS News that Ukraine has agreed to the “core terms” of a draft peace deal put forward by the Trump administration, though “minor details” remain unresolved.
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s national security adviser, said negotiators had reached a “common understanding” in talks with U.S. and European officials and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could travel to Washington before the end of November to finalize an agreement.
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Abu Dhabi for indirect talks with Russian representatives, shuttling between rooms in what they described as an intensive round of negotiations. A Ukrainian delegation is also present in the UAE and is coordinating with American officials.
The U.S.-led effort follows high-level weekend talks in Geneva involving Secretary of State Marco Rubio, presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and European diplomats.
Negotiators are working off a revised version of a 28-point proposal that includes several contentious provisions — among them, requiring Ukraine to relinquish all of Donetsk, including areas not currently occupied by Russia, and halting Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected such terms.
A second document circulated among negotiators outlines potential long-term U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine modeled on NATO’s Article 5, according to Ukrainian officials.
The White House said in a statement that Washington and Kyiv have drafted “an updated and refined peace framework,” while noting that further work is needed. Rubio described the discussions as “very meaningful,” though he signaled that Trump’s Thanksgiving deadline is flexible.
American officials say the talks are taking place against a stark battlefield backdrop. Russia is pressing deeper into the eastern Donetsk region, and U.S. analysts believe Moscow is likely to take the strategic hub of Pokrovsk — a key Ukrainian logistics center — if current military trends continue.
One U.S. official told CBS News that Putin appears confident he will control the region “one way or another,” whether through negotiations or force.
Lavrov, meanwhile, emphasized that Russia will wait for the United States to communicate the results of its consultations with Ukraine and European allies, insisting that Moscow will not publicly discuss details until a formal agreement emerges.
Russia has not yet commented on the proposed terms being negotiated in Abu Dhabi, leaving open how far the Kremlin is willing to go — or whether the diplomatic momentum reported by U.S. officials will translate into a durable ceasefire after nearly four years of war.
